Anxious about family own restaurants?

veto1024

I've been using MFP for almost 2 months now and I've been wondering if anyone else has become anxious when they go to a family owned restaurant. At chain/national restaurants, at least here in California, all the nutritional information is available and on the menu. However, at a family own or non-chain restaurant, no such data exists! I've come to be somewhat comfortable simply using food data from other restaurants if I know the food is of similar quantity/type, but it's still a bit nerve racking! Sometimes there are restaurants that prepare dishes that have no equal in other restaurants. One of my favorite dishes is a Thai dish called Param. I can hardly find the food by googling it on the internet, let alone find any nutritional data :P

Does anyone else get a bit nervous or annoyed or feel like they're groping in the dark when it comes to calories for family run restaurants?

I go to one restaurant with my family frequently and we get this appetizer sampler and my diary looks hilarious after I enter it all because the restaurant is family own. It ends up looking like:

1 Red Robin - Mozzarella stick
1 Buffalo Wild Wings - Medium chicken wing
1 Famous jack (actually I forget the name so I made it up) Santa Fe roll
1/2 *Some other place* Potato Skins

When all is said and done, it looks like I just tried to kill myself on a restaurant binge, but only actually ate like 400 calories since I really am just grabbing 1 of everything.

EDIT: Oh god, I wrote family own. What kind of English am I speaking.

JenAiMarres

It is annoying but most of the time if I am going out to dinner... it is so far and few in between that I just log the best I can and move forward!

I too love those food days it looks like I ate at olive garden, sonic, and el Torito in one sitting!!!

Relax and enjoy!! At least every once in a while!!!